They come beatifully boxed and are a must for any motor racing enthusiast

Full races in the boxset are as follows

1971 full race 1975 full race1978 full race1979 full race1980 full race1981 full race1982 full race1983 full race1984 full race1985 full race1986 full race1987 full race1988 full race1989 full race1990 full race1991 full race1992 full race1993 full race1994 full race1995 full race1996 full race1997 full race1998 full race1999 full race2000 full race2001 full race2002 full race2003 full race2004 full race2005 full race2006 full race2007 full race 2008 full race 2009 full race 2010 full race2011 full race 2012 full race 2013 full race 2014 full race2015 full race

The race is held on a narrow course laid out in the streets of Monaco,
with many elevation changes and tight corners as well as a tunnel,
making it one of the most demanding tracks in Formula One. In spite of
the relatively low average speeds, it is a dangerous place to race.

Contents

History

Origin

Like many European races, the Monaco Grand Prix predates the current World Championship. The principality's first Grand Prix was organised in 1929 by Anthony Noghès, under the auspices of Prince Louis II, through the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM). Alexandre Noghès, Anthony's father, was founding president of the ACM, originally named Sport Vélocipédique Monégasque. The ACM made their first foray into motorsport by holding the Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo in 1911. In 1928 the club applied to the Association Internationale des Automobiles Clubs Reconnus
(AIACR), the international governing body of motorsport, to be upgraded
from a regional French club to full national status. Their application
was refused due to the lack of a major motorsport event held wholly
within Monaco's boundaries. The rally could not be considered as it
mostly used the roads of other European countries.[3]

In order to attain full national status, Noghès proposed the creation of an automobile Grand Prix in the streets of Monte Carlo. Noghès obtained the official support of Prince Louis II. Noghès also gained support for his plans from Monegasque Louis Chiron,
a top-level driver in European Grand Prix racing. Chiron thought that
the topography of the location would be well suited to setting up a
race track.[3]

Pre-war

The race quickly grew in importance. Because of the large number of
races which were being termed 'Grands Prix', the AIACR formally
recognised the most important race of each of its affiliated national
automobile clubs as International Grands Prix, or Grandes Épreuves, and in 1933 Monaco was ranked as such alongside the French, Belgian, Italian, and Spanish Grands Prix.[4]That year's race
was the first Grand Prix where grid positions were decided, as they are
now, by practice time rather than the established method of balloting. The race saw Achille Varzi and Tazio Nuvolari exchange the lead many times before being settled in Varzi's favour on the final lap when Nuvolari's car caught fire.[5] The race became a round of the new European Championship in 1936 and 1937, and both races were won by Mercedes-Benz before the Second World War ended organised racing in Europe until 1945.

Formula One

Racing in Europe started again on 9 September1945 at the Bois de Boulogne park in the city of Paris, four months and one day after the end of the war in Europe.[6] In 1946 a new premier racing category, Formula One, was defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the successor of the AIACR, based on the pre-war voiturette class. A Monaco Grand Prix was run to this formula in 1948, won by the future world champion Nino Farina in a Maserati 4CLT.
Although the 1949 event was cancelled due to the death of Prince Louis
II, it was included in the new World Drivers' Championship the following year. The race provided future five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio
with his first win in a World Championship race, as well as third place
for the 51 year old Louis Chiron; his best result in the World
Championship era. However, there was no race in 1951, and in 1952, a
year in which the world drivers' championship was run for less powerful
Formula Two cars, the race was run to sports car rules instead and did not form part of the World Championship.[2] Since 1955
- when Chiron again scored points and at 56 became the oldest driver to
compete in a Formula One Grand Prix - the Monaco Grand Prix has
continuously been part of the Formula One World Championship.[7]

Britain'sGraham Hill won the race five times in the 1960s and became known as "King of Monaco"[9] and "Mr. Monaco".[2] In the 1965 race
he took pole position and led from the start, but went up an escape
road on lap 25 to avoid hitting a slow backmarker. Rejoining in fifth
place, Hill set several new lap records on the way to winning.[10] The race was also notable for the debut of Honda in the World Championship, and for Paul Hawkins' Lotus ending up in the harbour.[11] A similar incident was included in the 1966 film Grand Prix.[12]

By the early 1970s, as Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone started to marshal the collective bargaining power of the Formula One Constructors Association
(FOCA), Monaco was prestigious enough to become an early bone of
contention. Historically the number of cars permitted in a race was
decided by the race organiser, in this case the ACM, which had always
set a low number, around 16. In 1972 Ecclestone was starting to
negotiate deals which relied on FOCA guaranteeing at least 18 entrants
for every race. A stand off over this issue left the 1972 race in
jeopardy until the ACM gave in and agreed that 26 cars could
participate - the same number permitted at most other circuits. Two
years later, in 1974, the ACM managed to get the numbers back down to
18.[13]

Because of its tight confines and punishing nature, Monaco has often thrown up unexpected results. In the 1982 raceRené Arnoux led the first 15 laps, before retiring. Alain Prost then led until four laps from the end, when he spun off on the wet track, hit the barriers and lost a wheel, giving Riccardo Patrese the lead. Patrese himself spun with only a lap and a half to go, letting Didier Pironi through to the front, followed by Andrea de Cesaris.
On the last lap, Pironi ran out of fuel in the tunnel, but De Cesaris
also ran out of fuel before he could overtake. In the meantime Patrese
had bump-started his car and went through to score his first Grand Prix
win.[14]

In 1983 the ACM became entangled in the disagreements between Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) and FOCA. The ACM, with the agreement of Bernie Ecclestone, negotiated an individual television rights deal with ABC in the United States. This broke an agreement enforced by FISA for a single central negotiation of television rights. Jean-Marie Balestre,
president of FISA, announced that the Monaco Grand Prix would not form
part of the Formula One world championship in 1985. The ACM fought
their case in the French courts. They lost the case and the race was
eventually reinstated.[13]

For the decade from 1984 to 1993 the race was won by only two drivers - Frenchman Prost and Brazilian Ayrton Senna. Prost, already a winner of the support race for Formula Three cars in 1979, took his first Monaco win at the 1984 race. The race started 45 minutes late after heavy rain. Prost led briefly before Nigel Mansell
overtook him on lap 11. Mansell crashed out five laps later, letting
Prost back into the lead. On lap 27, Prost led from Ayrton Senna's Toleman and Stefan Bellof's Tyrrell.
Senna was catching Prost and Bellof was catching both of them. However
on lap 31, the race was controversially stopped. Later, FISA fined the
clerk of the course, Jacky Ickx, $6,000 and suspended his licence for not consulting the stewards before stopping the race.[15]
The drivers received only half of the points that would usually be
awarded, as the race had been stopped before two thirds of the intended
race distance had been completed.

Senna holds the record for the most victories in Monaco, with six, including five between 1989 and 1993, as well as eight podium finishes in ten starts. His 1987
win was the first time a car with an active suspension had won a Grand
Prix. His win was very popular with the people of Monaco, and when he
was arrested on the Monday following the race, for riding a motorcycle
without wearing a helmet, he was released by the officers after they
realised who he was.[16] At the 1992 event Nigel Mansell, who had won all five races held to that point in the season, took pole and dominated the race in his Williams FW14B-Renault.
However, with seven laps remaining, Mansell suffered a loose wheel nut
and was forced into the pits, emerging behind Ayrton Senna's McLaren-Honda.
Mansell, on fresh tyres, set a lap record almost two seconds quicker
than Senna's and closed from 5.2 to 1.9 seconds in only two laps. The
pair duelled around Monaco for the final four laps but Mansell could
find no way past, finishing just two tenths of a second behind the
Brazilian.[17][18] It was Senna's fifth win at Monaco, equalling Graham Hill's record. After Senna took his sixth win at the 1993 race, breaking Graham Hill's record for most wins at the Monaco Grand Prix, runner-up Damon Hill commented that "If my father was around now, he would be the first to congratulate Ayrton."[19]

The 1996 race saw Michael Schumacher
take pole position before crashing out on the first lap. Damon Hill led
the first 40 laps before his engine expired in the tunnel. Jean Alesi took the lead but suffered suspension failure 20 laps later. Olivier Panis, who started in 14th place, moved into the lead and stayed there until the end of the race, being pushed all the way by David Coulthard. It was Panis' only win, and the last for his Ligier team. Only four cars finished the race.

Seven-time world champion Schumacher would eventually win the race
five times, matching Graham Hill's record. As of 2008, he also holds
the current lap record with a 1:14.439, according to the official
Formula One website. In his last appearance, at the 2006 event, he attracted criticism while provisionally holding pole position
with the qualifying session drawing to a close, by stopping his car at
the Rascasse hairpin, blocking the track. A result of this was that
yellow flags were waved, so that competitors were obliged to slow down,
thus meaning they would not be able to beat Schumacher's lap time.
Although Schumacher claimed it was a genuine accident, the FIA disagreed and Schumacher was sent to the back of the grid.[20]

Circuit

The Circuit de Monaco consists of the city streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine,
which includes the famous harbour. It is unique in having been held on
the same circuit every time it has been run over such a long period —
only the Italian Grand Prix, which has been held at Autodromo Nazionale Monza every year except 1980 and 1921, has a similarly lengthy and close relationship with a single circuit.

The race circuit has many elevation changes, tight corners, and a
narrow course that makes it one of the most demanding tracks in Formula
One racing.[21] As of 2008, only two drivers have crashed and ended up in the harbour, the most famous being Alberto Ascari in 1955.[11][22]
Despite the fact that the course has had minor changes several times
during its history, it is still considered the ultimate test of driving
skills in Formula One, and if it were not already an existing Grand Prix, it would not be permitted to be added to the schedule for safety reasons.[23]
Even in 1929, 'La Vie Automobile' magazine offered the opinion that
"Any respectable traffic system would have covered the track with
<> sign posts left, right and centre".[24]

Triple Formula One champion Nelson Piquet
was fond of saying that racing at Monaco was "like trying to cycle
round your living room", but added that "a win here was worth two
anywhere else".[25]

Notably, the course includes a tunnel. The contrast of daylight and
gloom when entering/exiting the tunnel presents "challenges not faced
elsewhere", as the drivers have to "adjust their vision as they emerge
from the tunnel at the fastest point of the track and brake for the chicane in the daylight."[26]

Organisation

The Monaco Grand Prix is organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also runs the Monte Carlo Rally and the Junior Monaco Kart Cup.[27]

It differs in several ways from other Grands Prix. The practice
session for the race is held on the Thursday preceding the race instead
of Friday.[28]
This allows the streets to be opened to the public again on the Friday.
Until the late 1990s the race started at 3:30 p.m. local time - an hour
and a half later than other European Formula One races. In recent years
the race has fallen in line with the other Formula One races for the
convenience of television viewers. Also, earlier the event was
traditionally held on the week of Ascension Day.
For many years, the numbers of cars admitted to Grands Prix was at the
discretion of the race organisers - Monaco had the smallest grids,
ostensibly because of its narrow and twisting track.[29] Only 18 cars were permitted to enter the 1975 Monaco Grand Prix, compared to 23 to 26 cars at all other rounds that year.[30]

The erecting of the circuit takes six weeks, and the removal after the race takes three weeks.[31] There is no podium as such at the race. Instead a section of the track is closed after the race to act as parc fermé,
a place where the cars are held for official inspection. The first
three drivers in the race leave their cars there and walk directly to
the royal box where the 'podium' ceremony is held, which is considered a custom for the race.[32]

Fame

The Monaco Grand Prix is widely considered to be one of the most
important and prestigious automobile races in the world alongside the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race and 24 Hours of Le Mans.[24][33] These three races are considered to form a Triple Crown
of the three most famous motor races in the world. Graham Hill is the
only driver to have completed the Triple Crown, by winning all three
races. The practice session for Monaco overlaps with that for the
Indianapolis 500, and the races themselves sometimes clash. As the two
races take place on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean and form part of different championships, it is difficult for one driver to compete effectively in both during his career.[34]Juan Pablo Montoya, who won the Monaco Grand Prix in 2003 and the Indianapolis 500 in 2000,
is the only driver still racing in 2007 who has won two of the three
races and who is therefore able to complete the Triple Crown.[35]

In awarding its first Gold medal for motor sport to Prince Rainier III, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) characterised the Monaco Grand Prix as contributing "an exceptional location of glamour and prestige" to motor sport.[1] It has been run under the patronage of three generations of Monaco's royal family: Louis II, Rainier III and Albert II,
all of whom have taken a close interest in the race. A large part of
the principality's income comes from tourists attracted by the warm
climate and the famous casino, but it is also a tax haven and is home to many millionaires, including several Formula One drivers.[36]

Multiple winners (constructors)

A pink background indicates an event which was not part of the Formula One World Championship.A cream background indicates an event which was part of the pre-war European Championship.Embolded teams are still competing in the Formula One championship